A blog by Kimberly Jensen, Professor of History and Gender Studies at Western Oregon University, with a focus on my research and writing projects in women's history. My current research is for a book project tentatively titled “Civic Borderlands: Oregon Women’s Claims to Citizenship and Civil Liberties, 1913-1924”

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

I've been blogging about the women of University of Oregon Medical School Base Hospital Unit 46 during World War I. In the last post I highlighted Chief Nurse Grace Phelps's challenges in recruiting and equipping women for the unit, with the "many and varied sad tales of the organization of the nursing personnel." Certainly one of these challenges came in November 1917 when the Red Cross "borrowed" seven of the nurses for assignment before Base Hospital 46 was ready to sail, part of a contingent of eight Red Cross nurses from Portland.

"8 Nurses Called," Oregonian, November 27, 1917, 8.

The Red Cross assigned the eight nurses to duty at the Presidio in San Francisco and at Camp Lewis near Tacoma, Washington. As the Oregonian reported it, a frustrated Grace Phelps reminded the seven who had signed on to Base Hospital 46 that they had to be ready for mobilization. It appears that Phelps accompanied them to the train station, "warning them as they pulled out that they were to hold themselves ready for an instant call for mobilization." She had worked so hard to gather the nurses needed, and now these were slipping away, if only for temporary duty. "You are merely lent at the call of the Government," she said. "Upon receipt of telegraphic notice you will be permitted to relinquish your duties immediately and report to the mobilization point of Base Hospital No. 46."

"Red Cross Nurses Who Left Portland Yesterday for Service at the Presidio of San Francisco, and Camp Lewis," Oregonian, November 27, 1917, 8.

A staff binder, part of the Grace Phelps papers at the incomparable Historical Collections & Archives at Oregon Health & Science University, gives us more information about the seven.

Those assigned temporarily to the Presidio were:

Emma Kern, a 1908 graduate of The Dalles Hospital Training School for Nurses with experience as a private duty nurse and with Good Samaritan Hospital.

Marjorie MacEwan, a 1916 graduate of Good Samaritan Training School for Nurses who had worked as a private duty nurse, an X-Ray laboratory assistant, and before her nursing training as a private secretary.

The Oregonian account of their departure tells us something about how Grace Phelps felt about the situation but didn't record how these seven women felt. I would give a great deal to know if they were excited, nervous, anxious for adventure, or all three.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Grace Phelps, R.N., Superintendent of Nurses at Multnomah County Hospital in Portland, served as Chief Nurse for Base Hospital 46 for most of its existence in the US and in France from 1917 to early 1919. A wonderful online exhibit from the Historical Collections & Archives at Oregon Health & Science University "Grace Phelps, R.N. -- A Reverie in Sepia" has more on the life and work of this remarkable Oregon woman.

I'm posting about Base Hospital 46, one of the many hospital units organized around university and civilian hospitals prior to and in the early months of the US entry into the war. Phelps had the complicated and challenging task of recruiting nurses and female staff members (stenographers, dieticians and laboratory technicians) for the base hospital unit. Before the unit sailed for France in the summer of 1917 the Red Cross called for 50, then 65, then 100 nurses to staff the unit.

"Prominent Figures in Base Hospital 46, Soon to See Service in France," Oregonian, March 17, 1918, Section 1, 14.

In the midst of this process the Oregonian published an article about the preparations featuring photos of chief surgeon Robert C. Yenney, longtime faculty member at the University of Oregon Medical School (now OHSU) and chief nurse Grace Phelps. It's interesting to think about the extent to which staff members and readers may have seen this as a professional partnership with nurses as a vital part of the unit.

The article that accompanied this image answered a question that I had about the unit -- just how did the projected size of Base Hospital Unit 46 compare with the size of hospitals in Portland at the time?

She received, she said, "all sorts of applications" from women anxious to show their patriotism and to "get to France." She had to go through these with attention to Red Cross/Army Nurse Corps Reserve Nurse requirements for age, marital status, and ability to meet the physical requirements of the job, and that narrowed the field. More in a later post about vaccinations, health, and illness in France, something she mentions briefly here.

It's important to note that Phelps addressed the question of finances here. In addition to raising funds for the unit discussed in a previous post, nurses were expected to furnish their own clothing and uniforms. Phelps was sensitive to this, writing here that "Many nurses who had family responsibilities found they could not meet this expense." The Portland chapter of the Red Cross assisted with these expenses, making it possible to meet the quota of nurses needed.

Phelps's concluding sentence in this section speaks volumes about the task but without the detail we crave: "Many and varied sad tales of the organization of the nursing personnel of our unit could be told, but we have learned to avoid sad stories." Additional research from the Phelps papers reveals some of these "sad tales" for staffing of nurses and female personnel, including a charge of espionage in one case, but I have to save some of the details for my upcoming book!

The Oregonian published a list of the basic professional requirements for nurses to serve in a base hospital unit (added to those Phelps discussed above). They reflect the growing professionalization of nursing education and licensing/registration by 1917, and we'll end with those today:

Thursday, January 22, 2015

More on the women personnel of Base Hospital 46 in World War I -- Martha Randall, R.N.

In the summer and fall of 1917 personnel of Base Hospital 46 from the University of Oregon Medical School were faced with a fund-raising challenge. The national Red Cross required each base hospital to raise enough funds to equip the unit, initially estimated at $42,000 (about $1 million in today's dollars adjusted for inflation). This at a time when the nation was also asking residents to buy liberty bonds, contribute to the Red Cross and other organizations, and when prices were rising.

"Hospital Unit Seeks Fund," Oregonian, October 12, 1917, 7.

Base Hospital officials did something that may sound familiar to some of us -- they asked each person who had volunteered for service with the unit to raise money -- $5 per person, almost $100 in today's dollars.

At least one of the women of Base Hospital 46 used her networks to publicize the work of the base hospital, and almost certainly to help raise these funds. Within the week Martha Randall went to the Fortnightly Club (a women's service organization) to speak and likely to ask for support.

Martha Randall, R.N. was in the midst of a career in social medicine. She was an assistant to Lola Baldwin, Portland's first police matron in the Women's Protective Division, served as Eugene's policewoman in 1913, and returned to police work in Portland in 1916. After the war she took over as head of the Portland Woman's Protective Bureau when Lola Baldwin retired (first as interim, then as head).

So, did Base Hospital unit volunteers get their crowdfunding to work??

"Hospital Gets Funds," Oregonian, October 12, 1917, 7.

In addition to whatever individual funds staff members like Randall were able to raise, the state Red Cross put in $20,000 and asked local chapters to match those dollars. The fraternal organization the Elks pledged from $30,000 to $60,000. Base Hospital 46 had the money. And it's why some sources refer to Base Hospital 46 as the Elks and Red Cross Base Hospital from Oregon.

Monday, January 19, 2015

The centennial commemoration of the beginning of World War I in 1914 began world-wide this past summer and as we prepare for the centennial of the US preparation in the conflict (April 1917 to November 1918) we have many available resources. A most interesting group of Oregon women are the nurses and civilian personnel who served with Base Hospital 46 in Bazoilles-sur-Meuse, France.

The most detailed source we've had for Base Hosptial 46 has been
Otis Buckminster Wight, Donald Macomber, and Arthur S.
Rosenfeld, eds., On Active Service with Base Hospital 46 U.S.A. March 20, 1918
to May 25, 1919 (Portland, Oregon: Arcady Press, 1920) available in digital format from the Library of Congress. This compilation details the personnel and history of various portions of the unit, with some important information about the experiences of nurses and civilian women.

But now we can investigate much more about the women on staff, thanks to materials from the wonderful Historical Collections & Archives at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland the Grace Phelps Papers (Accession 2010-005); the Eleanor Donaldson Collection (Accession 2008-020), including personnel information and some correspondence. And materials from Record Group 112, Army Nurse Corps Historical Data File 1898-1947 at the U.S. National Archives contain narratives written by several women from Base Hospital 46 that did not make it into Otis Wight's On Active Service. We can now hear more of their voices and analyze their specific experiences in much more detail. I'll share some of this information with you in upcoming posts.

Some additional materials from HC&A at OHSU include the Base Hospital 46 Collection (Accession 2004-026 John Guy Strohm Scrapbook: Base Hospital 46); and the Otis B. Wight – Base Hospital 46 – Glass Plate Negative Collection (Accession 2006-012). Many thanks to Archivists Maija Anderson, Max Johnson and Archivist Emerita Karen Peterson for their support with my research in these collections. OHSU has a wonderful online exhibit about Grace Phelps, R.N., the chief
nurse for Base Hospital 46 through January 1919: "Grace Phelps, R.N.--A Reverie in Sepia." Another published work is Colonel Joseph H. Ford, M.C., Administration, American Expeditionary Force, Vol. 2, The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War (Washington, D.C.L Government Printing Office, 1927) available in digital format from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Let's start with some context. Beginning in 1916, before the United States entered the war, doctors and nurses in the U.S. began to organize base hospital units associated with civilian hospital or schools of medicine to prepare for wartime medical service. Nurses enrolled as reserve nurses with the Red Cross. The idea, according to organizers George Crile, M.D. of Cleveland and William J. Mayo, M.D. of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, was to capitalize on the working relationships already in place at these institutions, to create a full staff, and to practice and learn together (See Kimberly Jensen, Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008] 125-129.)

In Oregon, faculty physicians at the University of Oregon Medical Department (now OHSU) in Portland began to organize in May 1917 and mobilized for service in May 1918. Dr. Robert C. Yenney was chief of medical services and Grace Phelps, R.N., Superintendent of Nurses at Multonomah Hospital, was chief nurse. The unit arrived at Bazoilles-sur-Meuse on July 2, 1918 and the unit served until the end of January 1919 (See Wight, On Active Service, Ford, Medical Department, 672-3, and "Reverie in Sepia").

Bazoilles-sur-Meuse is located in Northeastern France, as this Google Map shows:

Base Hospital 46 became part of an extensive, combined hospital center that included six other base hospital units (units 18, 42, 60, 79, 81, 116). For Base 46 alone
hospital capacity was 1,000 beds in barracks and
1,000 in tents with some 300 more in tents possible in crisis shifts. The Bazoilles-sur-Meuse complex of hospitals had a crisis capacity over 13,000. Images from The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War give us a sense of the scope and environment the women of Base Hospital 46 experienced.

Kimberly Jensen's Author Webpage

About Me

Kimberly Jensen received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in women’s and U.S. history and teaches history and gender studies at Western Oregon University.
She is the author of Oregon's Doctor to the World: Esther Pohl Lovejoy and a Life in Activism (University of Washington Press, 2012), Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (University of Illinois Press, 2008) and coeditor, with Erika Kuhlman, of Women and Transnational Activism in Historical Perspective (Dordrecht: Republic of Letters, 2010).
She is working on a new book project tentatively titled “Civic Borderlands: Oregon Women’s Claims to Citizenship and Civil Liberties, 1913-1924”